What is Diversification? Suggested Grade & Mastery Level High School all levels Suggested Time 45 minutes Teacher Background Because it is very difficult to accurately predict how any one company will perform over time, diversification is a strategy that helps to protect your portfolio. It is a widely used and highly successful way to reduce risk. Most financial planners agree with the admonition don t put all your eggs in one basket. By investing in different types of stocks, bonds, and/or mutual funds, the value of your entire portfolio should not be wiped out if one investment fails. The Stock Market Game is a great way for students to learn about diversifying by analyzing the stocks in their portfolio. In this lesson students learn to diversify their SMG portfolios by investing in companies from different industries. Students will use a financial website to complete this lesson. Vocabulary Diversification: An investment strategy in which you spread your investment dollars among industry sectors. Index: Reports changes, usually expressed as a percentage, in a specific financial market. Each index measures the market from a specific starting point. Some indexes are: Dow (NYSE), S&P 500 (NYSE), Russell (NASDAQ), etc. Industry: A group of companies that make the same products, i.e. pharmaceutical companies Portfolio: A collection of investments owned by one individual or organization. Risk: The chance of losing all or part of the value of an investment. Risk Tolerance: An individual investor s ability to accept loss of some or all of the money they have invested. A person s risk tolerance is based on a number of factors including age, financial stability, amount of time before the invested funds are needed for other purposes, etc. Sector: A group of stocks, often in one industry. The performance of any single stock in a sector can be measured against the performance of the group. Pharmaceutical companies are considered in the health care sector for example. Performance Objectives Students will be able to: Create a diversified portfolio selecting stocks from at least six industries Conduct internet research on investment options, write a summary of their findings and present their findings to the class Interpret company and industry charts to determine which investments their SMG team should make reserved. 1 of 4
Activity Sheet 3: How Diverse is Your SMG Portfolio? On table below list your SMG team s portfolio or planned portfolio. Use market cap to determine risk tolerance A Small Cap company: Less than $1 billion; a Mid Cap company: $1 billion to $5 billion; a Large Cap company: Over $5 billion. SMG ACCOUNT HOLDINGS Ticker Symbol Shares Held Company Risk Tolerance ESLR 300 Evergreen Solar High, small market cap (659.85M) On a scale from 5 to 1 where 5 is the most diverse, rate your SMG portfolio: 5 4 3 2 1 reserved. 1 of 2
ACTION PLAN: List the steps your team will take to diversify your SMG Portfolio. Review the SMG Account Holdings table you just completed and discuss your findings with your team and decide on a team investment strategy. List your account holdings below; indicate any changes you are making in your account to diversify its contents and minimize your risk. Investment Type Stocks Mutual Fund We selected this investment based on: It s performance compared with other companies It s market capitalization Potential for moderate and sustained growth Risk Level High Medium Low Ticker Symbol/ # Shares Owned Other: specify reserved. 2 of 2
Activity Sheet 3: Answer Key Answers may vary On table below list your SMG team s portfolio or planned portfolio. Use market cap to determine risk tolerance A Small Cap company: Less than $1 billion; a Mid Cap company: $1 billion to $5 billion; a Large Cap company: Over $5 billion. It needs to be explained here in the worksheet that the smaller the company, the greater the risk, because smaller companies tend to be newer and more volatile in price. SMG ACCOUNT HOLDINGS Ticker Symbol Shares Held Company Risk Tolerance ESLR 300 Evergreen Solar High, small market cap (659.85M) TM Toyota Low, large market cap (183.40B) VLTS 250 VALENTIS INC High, small market cap (7.7M) SDA 400 SADIA S.A. Medium, Mid Cap (2B) On a scale from 5 to 1 where 5 is the most diverse, rate your SMG portfolio: We have a variety of stocks in different industries and of different sizes X 5 4 3 2 1 reserved. 1 of 2
ACTION PLAN: List the steps your team will take to diversify your SMG Portfolio. Review the SMG Account Holdings table you just completed and discuss your findings with your team and decide on a team investment strategy. List your account holdings below; indicate any changes you are making in your account to diversify its contents and minimize your risk. Investment Type Stocks Mutual Fund We selected this investment based on: It s performance compared with other companies It s market capitalization Potential for moderate and sustained growth Risk Level High Medium Low Ticker Symbol/ # Shares Owned Answers here will vary depending on which stocks are in each team s portfolio. Other: specify reserved. 2 of 2
Activity Sheet 2: Industry/Sector Research Grouping stocks into sectors and industries makes it easier for investors to evaluate stocks within the same industry and assess the economic strength of that industry. Go to a stock research website and find a stock in an each industry listed below and record the specified information SECTOR COMPANY NAME TICKER PRICE PRODUCTS/SERVICES Basic Materials Consumer, Cyclical Consumer, Noncyclical Energy Financial Healthcare Industrial Technology Telecommunications Utilities 2009 SIFMA Foundation for Investor Education. All rights reserved. 1 of 2
Activity Sheet 2: Industry/Sector Research Grouping stocks into sectors and industries makes it easier for investors to evaluate stocks within the same industry and assess the economic strength of that industry. Go to a stock research website and find a stock in an each industry listed below and record the specified information. SECTOR COMPANY NAME TICKER PRICE PRODUCTS/SERVICES Basic Materials Alcoa AA $29.32 Aluminum Consumer, Cyclical Time-Warner TWX $16.21 Entertainment Consumer, Noncyclical Proctor & Gamble PG $56.44 Household products Energy Exxon Mobil XOM $66.47 Oil and gas Financial Wachovia Bank WB $52.40 Banking and Financial Services Healthcare Amgen AMGN $69.28 Biotechnology Industrial Hanson PLC HAN $61.28 Cement Technology First Data CP FDC $41.11 Telecommunications Verizon Communications Utilities Con Edison CEDNM.OB $80.30 Business Software and Service VZ $33.73 Phone and related services Electric and gas service to New York City area 2009 SIFMA Foundation for Investor Education. All rights reserved. 2 of 2
Activity Sheet 1: How Diversified are these Portfolios From the financial portfolios listed below which one is the most diversified? Explain. PORTFOLIO A PORTFOLIO B PORTFOLIO C Symbol/ Quantity Industry Symbol/ Quantity Industry Symbol/ Quantity Industry FISV Business Software JPM 200 Bank SBUX 500 Specialty: eateries TD Bank AAPL 150 Personal computer TIF 200 Jewelry ADES Specialty Chemicals INTC 200 Semi-conductor BK Banks TRB Publishing Newspaper GOOG Internet search service GOOG Internet search service TW Insurance MSFT 300 Software CSK Paper products ESRX Health Services SBUX 150 Specialty: eateries NCC Banks RAIL Railroad DELL 300 Personal Computer UNS 700 Electric: Utilities HD 250 Home Improvement WMT 300 Discount: Variety reserved. 1 of 3
Now it s your turn. Select a portfolio listed above and, using the table below, diversify its holdings. You cannot diversify just by adding more companies to the portfolio. Assume all stocks in the portfolios are the same price. After you sell 700 shares of a holding, you can buy 300 shares of another company s stock and 400 of another. Explain all changes you make. Symbol Quantity Industry reserved. 2 of 3
Activity Sheet 1:Answer Key From the financial portfolios listed below which one is the most diversified? Explain Answers may vary. The goal of the exercise is to encourage students to think more deeply about their responses. Generally speaking, Portfolio A is considered very diversified since it contains stocks from a variety of industries, including health services, Insurance, chemicals, and financial services. Portfolio B is not as diversified because it contains several technology related companies. Portfolio C is not as diversified because it contains several companies that sell or create personal luxury items or consumer goods. PORTFOLIO A PORTFOLIO B PORTFOLIO C Symbol/ Quantity Industry Symbol/ Quantity Industry Symbol/ Quantity Industry FISV Business Software JPM 200 Bank SBUX 500 Specialty: eateries TD Bank AAPL 150 Personal computer TIF 200 Jewelry ADES Specialty Chemicals INTC 200 Semi-conductor BK Banks TRB Publishing Newspaper GOOG Internet search service GOOG Internet search service TW Insurance MSFT 300 Software CSK Paper products ESRX Health Services SBUX 150 Specialty: eateries NCC Banks RAIL Railroad DELL 300 Personal Computer UNS 700 Electric: Utilities HD 250 Home Improvement WMT 300 Discount: Variety reserved. 1 of 2
Now it s your turn. Select a portfolio listed above and, using the table below, diversify its holdings. You cannot diversify just by adding more companies to the portfolio. Assume all stocks in the portfolios are the same price. After you sell 700 shares of a holding, you can buy 300 shares of another company s stock and 400 of another. Explain all changes you make. Answers may vary. I would work on Portfolio B. I would sell the 300 shares of Microsoft and buy 200 Shares of Newmont Mining, and shares of New York State Gas & Electric. I would then sell the 300 shares of Dell and buy ESRX, a health services stock, and 200 shares of Toyota. These would give the portfolio some new types of stocks. reserved. 2 of 2
Define diversification, risk tolerance, industry, index Subject Areas Social Studies, Mathematics, Technology, English Language Arts, Economics, Business Materials http://finance.yahoo.com Students can learn about different industries and explore the top industries to help them select stocks for their teams portfolio at the Yahoo! Finance homepage. The web page provides data on best and worst performing industries. http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/ind_index.html - Students interested in learning about different industries may find the Yahoo! Finance Industry Index of interest. www.thestreet.com Students can learn about various stocks and their performance. Activity Sheet 1: How diversified are these Portfolios? Activity Sheet 2: Industry/Sector Research Activity Sheet 3: How Diverse is Your SMG Portfolio? Springboard Activity Write the word diversification on the board. Define: The act of making various, or of changing form or quality (www. answers.com) Ask Where are you diversified in you current lives? What about the clothes you wear, the classes you take, the food you eat, etc.? All of your clothes don t look the same, you don t take all English classes or all math classes and you don t eat only pizza. Why do you diversify in these areas? What are the pros and cons of being diversified in these areas? Spend some time discussing the responses to the questions above before proceeding to the questions below. Do you agree that having a diversified financial portfolio (purchasing stocks from different industry sectors) lessens the risk of losing money? How do you think your team needs to go about creating a diverse portfolio? Elicit student suggestions on the last question and list them for later reference. Procedure Distribute the Activity Sheet 1: How Diversified Are These Portfolios? Have students work independently or in SMG teams to develop guidelines that their SMG team should follow to build a diversified portfolio. Afterwards, work as a class to develop a set of Rules for Diversification. Elicit rules such as: Select investments from at least three industries; Buy different financial products such as stocks, preferred stock, and mutual funds; reserved. 2 of 4
Diversify holdings even within an industry. (This means that if investing in the entertainment industry, for example, invest in the stock of high cap company such as Disney to balance an investment in a start-up, low cap, animation company that appears to have potential for growth.) Novice Level: Have students discuss the findings from Activity Sheet 1: How Diversified are These Portfolios? Ask How many different industries are represented in each portfolio? Can a portfolio be diversified based on the quantity of shares? What do you notice about the portfolios? Are any heavy with one particular industry? Have students complete Activity Sheet 2: Industry/Sector Research and meet in their SMG teams to review their current SMG Account Holdings page or plan investments. Distribute Activity Sheet 3: How Diverse is your SMG Portfolio? and have each team complete side one. Apprentice Level: Have SMG teams build a diversified portfolio using Yahoo financial tools. They should chart the industries they research in Excel and create a pie chart illustrating the percentage of each industry represented in their portfolios. Master and Grand Master Levels: Most professional money managers specialize in one industrial sector. This allows professional money managers to become experts on the companies in their sector. Have the members of each SMG team choose one industry sector to study so he/she becomes an expert in a sector for his/her SMG team. Have each student research five stocks in their industry sector and present his/her findings to the team. Assessment Using the data from their research, have students create a PowerPoint presentation on diversification with a minimum of five slides and a maximum of ten. The slides should include: a pie chart showing distribution of the team s current or planned investments a list of the three industries team members think will help fulfill their goals for diversification and growth a list of at least two rules the team plans to follow to assure that their portfolios remain diversified. other slides, at the team s discretion, that enhance or illustrate the concept of diversification. Novice and Apprentice Levels: reserved. 3 of 4
To reinforce what students learned in the lesson on risk, have them describe the stocks they have selected, explain the risk tolerance of each and discuss the diversification of the team s portfolio in an oral or written presentation. Master and Grand Master Levels: Have each student research his/her assigned industry sector and create a presentation that convinces investors to invest in companies in that sector. Have students include growth statistics and economic factors that affect the sector they have researched. Application Novice and Apprentice Levels: Have several students list their team s portfolio from Activity Sheet 3 on the board and compare the portfolios. Have the class discuss which portfolio best illustrates a diversified portfolio. Have students review their current SMG portfolios to determine if they diversified. If a team decides their portfolio needs diversification, they must explain how they will go about creating diversification in it. If they feel their portfolio is diversified, they must present their reasons for reaching that conclusion. Master and Grand Master Levels: Form industry sector workgroups composed of experts from the SMG teams. Have these expert workgroups develop and deliver presentations to the entire class on why SMG teams should invest in their sectors. These presentations must include sector growth statistics and the economic factors that affect the sector. Enrichment Activities Homework: Based upon the work completed in class, have students develop a tip-sheet to help investors diversify their financial portfolio. Make sure that they address how investors can maintain diversification when they have a specific investment strategy like socially responsible investing or investing only in companies that are less than five years old. Teams should answer the question: If you have narrowed your investment options by deciding to follow a particular strategy, does this mean that you cannot now have a diversified portfolio? Explain your answer. reserved. 4 of 4